It is well known that dirt, debris, rust and powder residue within a firearm barrel negatively affect firing precision and can lead to dangerous misfires. Even so, most firearms are not cleaned and lubricated in accordance with manufacturers' recommendations because traditional processes for cleaning and conditioning firearms are tedious, physically demanding and equipment intensive.
A number of documents describe devices intended to overcome the problems associated with traditional firearm cleaning systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,389,978 discloses a shotgun shell containing a pressurized gas cartridge comprising an internal strike pin for puncturing a far end of the gas cartridge in order to propel a cleaning wad from the end of the shell; U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,744 discloses a shotgun shell including a gas cartridge configured to be pushed into a rupturing pin near a far end of the cartridge in order to propel a cleaning wad through a firearm bore; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,843,750 and 4,998,368 disclose a cleaning wad attached to a compressed gas cartridge placed directly into a firearm chamber; U.S. Pat. No. 4,328,632 discloses a casing containing several barrel cleaning layers and a compressed gas cartridge that is propelled down the barrel with the cleaning layers; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,619,278 discloses a compressed gas system for launching non-lethal ammunition.